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Terror Suspect Upsets Plan to Resume Trials in Cuba

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba, Jan. 11 - The military commissions prosecuting suspected members of Al Qaeda reconvened on Wednesday for the first time in more than a year and were quickly thrown into disarray when a defendant declared he was boycotting the proceedings.

Invited by the judge to address the court, the defendant, Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul, delivered a 10-minute address in which he praised Allah and denounced "your allies, the Jews." Complaining that he had not been permitted to choose a lawyer from Yemen, his home country, Mr. Bahlul said he had no expectation of justice from a system created by his American enemies.

"I am telling the judge do what you have to do," he said in Arabic through a translator. "Rule what you have to rule. This life will go on and end at some point. God will rule based on justice, and those who call on other than God are not calling on anything."

Smiling, he then held up a piece of paper with the word "boycott" written in stylized Arabic script, then repeated the word three times in English. For the rest of the two-hour hearing he was silent, even when asked by the presiding officer, Col. Peter Brownback III, to enter a plea.

Prosecutors say that Mr. Bahlul, one of the first prisoners to arrive at the Guantánamo center when it was set up in 2002, attended a Qaeda training camp and was a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden in 2001. Earlier, he had produced recruitment videos for Al Qaeda, including a tape on the 1998 attack on the destroyer Cole. If convicted, he faces a life sentence.

Even as Mr. Bahlul has acknowledged his connections to Al Qaeda, he has shown a talent for courtroom theatrics that have at times flummoxed the commissioners.

Little has gone smoothly for the military commissions, which the Bush administration created to try Guantánamo prisoners and which have suffered setbacks because of legal challenges, including a review from the Supreme Court.

Mr. Bahlul and Omar Khadr, a second defendant who appeared later in the day, are among nine detainees at Guantánamo who are facing war crimes charges under the military commission system.

More than 500 detainees remain in the center, which Pentagon officials once characterized as holding the most hardened terrorists captured in Afghanistan.

Of the remaining prisoners, 50 to 75 are likely to be charged, said a spokeswoman, Maj. Jane Boomer.

Mr. Bahlul demanded more than a year ago to choose a Yemeni lawyer, a request that was refused. Afterward, he said he wanted to represent himself, an idea that led commission authorities to suspend the proceedings while they researched the question. On Wednesday, Colonel Brownback ruled against him, saying President Bush's order establishing the commissions required defendants to have military counsel.

It also could violate bar association rules in Iowa and Wyoming where Mr. Fleener, a reservist, is licensed to practice, he said.

Mr. Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan and also faces life imprisonment, is accused of throwing a grenade that fatally wounded an American soldier. He declined to enter a plea on Wednesday.

Mr. Khadr's civilian defense lawyers say they can find no other war crimes prosecutions for war crimes involving a juvenile.

Prosecutors said juveniles accused of murder in the United States could be tried as adults in many states.

On Wednesday, Mr. Khadr's defense team moved to replace his appointed military lawyer, Capt. John Merriam, of the Army captain. His civilian lawyer, Muneer I. Ahmad, who is a law professor at American University, said Captain Merriam had never defended a case at trial before.

Speaking to reporters this week, Col. Morris Davis, the commission's chief prosecutor, defended the use of military commissions to try accused terrorists, saying existing law did not provide guidance for prosecuting members of terror groups.